Biometric sensors, such as heart rate monitors and EEG monitors, are becoming ever more popular amongst the general population. Heart rate monitor belts in particular are wide spread with people utilizing them in a variety of activities from walking to running, cycling, swimming and while playing sports. Current heart rate monitor belts are limited to actual belts which need to be worn by a user directly on the skin, typically underneath an athletic top.
It has long been a desire of users to have heart rate monitor belts integrated in to garments, e.g. sports bras, shirts and compression tops. However, many practical problems have kept heart rate monitor belts out of garments. One of the key practical factors deals with the current manufacturing supply chain. Most actual garments are constructed by garment manufacturers using specialized equipment, e.g. commercial sewing machines. These garment manufacturers are only equipped for the assembly of garment pieces, e.g. adding sleeves to a torso to form a shirt. They are not equipped to add electronics to garment pieces.
In order to manufacture a heart rate monitor belt typically two electrodes need to be affixed to some material in a precise manner. This is due to the contacts of the electrodes needing to be in a very specific orientation with respect to each other so that a telemetric electronic device can be releasable connected to the contacts and the telemetric electronic device typically has male snap portions at a predefined and fixed distance from each other.
To simply manufacture a heart rate monitor belt in to a garment would require the re-tooling of an existing manufacturer in the supply chain or the building of an entirely new manufacturing chain. For example, either the garment manufacturer would need to add space to the equipment needed to align and affix the electrodes to a garment during the garment assembly, or the heart rate monitor manufacturer would need to add all of the processes required for garment assembly. Neither is a feasible solution and thus heart rate monitor sensors have been relegated to their own belts.
Therefore, there exists a need for a product and method which allows for the integration of a biometric sensor in to a garment without the need for significantly altering current well established supply chains in either the garment or electronics manufacturing industries.